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"Girls don’t need packhorses, you brainless ass," Cassidy snapped "We’re perfectly capable of carrying our own packages You’d know that if you spent any ti to women"

"There weren’t many women in those camps, and there certainly weren’t fancy shops We were there to fight, to protect Dena Nehele, to escape being enslaved by a Ring of Obedience and made useless to our people So I don’t have town manners, Lady I didn’t need theI didn’t need"

He saw her effort to pull back, to assess And he saw so he hadn’t expected--and didn’t want: pity

"My apologies, Prince Theran," Cassidy said quietly "I didn’t realize you had such a difficult life"

"I had a good life," Theran snapped "I survived A lot ofcontrol of his temper with effort They didn’t like each other So be it He didn’t care if she understood hi he could do about it He had to tolerate her as best he could because Gray and that da to town or not?" he asked

Cassidy looked away "Yes Give et the pony cart and meet you at the front door" Because he needed air and open space

Because standing here in her suite, he had the odd sense that sohed down by their words and feelings--and was about to break

I survived A lot of men didn’t

The words circled round and round in her et into a serious discussion, and Theran’s stiff posture as he drove the pony cart into town didn’t invite small talk So she kept silent and absorbed the look and feel of the land during the short ride into town

I survived A lot of men didn’t

Those feords told her more about Theran Grayhaven than she’d learned in the past feeeks

No, he didn’t want pity He wasn’t the only boy who had been taken into the ht He wasn’t the only boy who had been hidden from the Queens who had been corrupted by Dorothea SaDiablo And there had been other boys who had suffered far more than he had

Gray, for instance

But she saw his quest for a Queen differently because of those words It hadn’t been as si a Queen who knew Protocol and the Old Ways of the Blood It had been about having a Queen who could dazzle, who could restore the heart in ht some more in order to restore Dena Nehele and then keep it safe from the Blood in the rest of Terreille

The Queen was the heart of a land, its moral center

Theran had needed a heart he could believe in without reservation He hadn’t found that Not in her

That was so to have to think about But not today Today she would be a visitor froe Today she would be Cassidy instead of a Queen

Toh to think about who she would be in the days ahead

As they entered the town of Grayhaven, she reviewed a ainst what she could shop for with a ed Theran into shops that were bound to make most men uncomfortable Now she considered which kinds of places her brother, Clayton, had gone into without balking; she figured those probably wouldn’t discoo?" Theran asked, sounding like he’d bitten into soather with like, so every town has coh the town and see as much of it as possible, but, for now, I’d like to see the shops where the court usually makes purchases"

She’d made an effort to keep her tone "interested visitor" instead of Queen He eyed her for a ed, but he wasn’t sure what

"All right," he finally said

The shopping district had several carriage parks--plots of land where conveyances could be left while people were going about their business Each park had a couple of youths who kept an eye on the horses and would even deliver a carriage if its owner didn’t want to walk back and claim it

Since that took care of the pony cart, Cassidy was quick to suggest walking and wondered why Theran hesitated

She didn’t wonder long The , then jolted when they saw her and realized who she ather the Blood here don’t make a distinction between a for in front of a shopShe wasn’t paying attention to the merchandise; she just wanted a moment to ask Theran about this behavior

Which hen she focused on a limpse of the proprietor’s face before the ht

Theran placed a hand on her elbow and tugged her away from the

"What?"

"That particular shop caters to s that most ladies pretend don’t exist"

Whichattention, because she had no idea what he was talking about--and she was certain he wouldn’t let her go back and look